Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dots

I once wrote, "there's almost nothing that can't be improved by the addition of polka dots," and I still think so. So does Gerard Manley Hopkins:

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Or Her...

A friend at the Ecotarium just sent me a link to an article about a new exhibit in Queensland, Australia by Yayoi Kusama, one of my favorite dotty artists. Here are before and after photos of the exhibit that invited children and others to add dots to a completely white space. Go to the article in the Daily Mail Online to see the work as it unfolded.



2 comments:

jcburns said...

Yeah, but the thing about polka dots is, you always have the 'polka' part.

janetvanfleet said...

I've been thinking about that, JC, and wondering whether I should lose the polka part. Damien Hirst certainly has. His are called "spots." Kusama's are "dots." Maybe if I loose that plebeian polka, I'll be rich and famous too. Or maybe I'll just have to wear funny hats.